The June 2025 Vintage Rabun Quarterly includes photos and brief biographies of some of Rabun County’s most influential women. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format. 2025 June Vintage Rabun
The March 2025 issue of the Vintage Rabun Quarterly is a brief recap of the role that fires have played in the county’s history. The Quarterly features photographs of a few of the fires that were documented or the aftermath of the fires. 2025 Mar Vintage Rabun
Ozempic and other weight loss drugs would have been the last things needed by north Georgians in the nineteenth century. In the best of times, the food on the tables of subsistence farmers was barely adequate. In the worst of times when crops failed, periods of hunger were endured. Mountain people were lean for good
Highway 441 has gone through five iterations in its long history. It started as a centuries-old Indian trail that ran the length of what became Rabun County. The trail was “improved” into a single lane dirt road following the county’s founding in 1819 and then converted into a toll road later in the 1800s. 441
Stashing cash in a mattress or burying it in the backyard were two ways Rabun County’s people could “save” money during the 1800s. It was not until the early twentieth century that a third option became available. In January 1904, a group of citizens invited W. S. Witham, president of Georgia’s Witham Banking, to discuss
The March 2024 newsletter contains photographs and a bit of history about the grist mills of Rabun County, both past and present. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format. 2024 March Vintage Rabun
The December 2023 newsletter highlights some of the books available for sale in our museum and on our website. We also include photos and a bit of history on three of the important river crossings in the county and show how the bridges have evolved to keep pace with the progress of transportation. 2023 Dec
Clayton has been around a long time, probably longer than many people think. The town’s history begins with the Cherokees and ends, at least for now, with tourism and a Main Street lined with boutiques. A good deal has transpired in between. As the homeland of the Cherokees for hundreds of years, northeast Georgia was
Sinking Mountain is located about seven miles northwest of Tallulah Falls. Some people claimed the mountain was sinking a few inches every year. They swore you could feel the mountain moving under your feet. Others dismissed this claim as sheer nonsense. But we are getting ahead of our story about the Hostess of Sinking Mountain.
African-Americans were among the earliest residents of Rabun County. They were slaves. Rabun County was created by an act of the Georgia legislature in 1819. The new county’s land was offered to white settlers through the Land Lottery of 1820. Unique to Georgia, this lottery system distributed 250-acre parcels in the county’s river valleys, which
The June 2022 newsletter contains historical photographs of Clayton scenes from Main Street and Savannah Street going back to the early twentieth century. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format. 2022 June Vintage Rabun
Although some politicians equate paying taxes with patriotic duty, few people celebrate their payments into the government till. That proved to be the case in 1907 when Rabun County’s Ordinary, the county’s chief executive responsible for everything from taxation to roads and bridges, ordered the imposition of a special tax to finance the construction of
At one time, Rabun County was dotted with nearly 30 gold mines as prospectors hoped to strike it rich with the yellow metal. Unfortunately for the Rabun miners with dollar signs dancing in their heads, more money was put into the ground than ever taken out. However, that was not the case elsewhere in north
Standing a lanky six-feet-five, Logan E. Bleckley was not known to frequent barbershops. His hair hung loosely around his shoulders, and his generous beard flowed down his chest. When asked about his appearance, he replied that Moses also wore his hair long, which also had the benefit of protecting his neck. Bleckley was a student
An editorial in the Clayton Tribune once declared, “Robberies, fights, shootings, knifings, street scuffles. They are all part of the contemporary history of Rabun County and Clayton.” It sounded like this was a pretty rough and lawless place. While some serious crimes were committed, there is a lighter side to some of the criminal activity
The December 2021 newsletter includes photographs from the early twentieth century when Rabun County and many areas of the Southern Appalachians were clear cut by industry-scale logging. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2021 Dec Vintage Rabun
Singing conventions with large, enthusiastic crowds were Rabun County’s rock concerts back in the day. Think hymnals instead of the Rolling Stones In reporting on the three-day Rabun County Singing Convention in 1931, the Clayton Tribune wrote, “The attendance on Friday was rather small but on Saturday the crowd had grown almost to the capacity
When Rabun County was founded in 1819, the local supermarket was the family farm. People ate the vegetables they grew, the animals they raised, the game they hunted and the fish they caught. Surviving in the isolated mountains of northeast Georgia was no easy task. Pork, squirrel and venison were favorite meats. Vegetables were eaten
Geography is a key factor shaping the development of a country or region. As an island nation, England turned to the ocean and became the world’s greatest maritime power by the eighteenth century. American pioneers saw the endless flat expanses of the Great Plains and turned it into the country’s breadbasket. On a still smaller
Franklin Delano Roosevelt assumed the U.S. presidency in 1933 at the depth of the Great Depression. National unemployment stood at a staggering 25%. FDR’s landslide election was a plea for help from a desperate and demoralized nation. Upon being sworn into office on March 4, 1933, FDR launched what became known as “The Hundred Days,”
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